The images used on the web can have various types of files formats, like GIF, PNG or JPEG. The advantages
of every type of image file format are clearly presented in many articles.

Regarding GIF images limitations, it is well known the superiority of PNG images over GIFs. Due to the fact that PNG image file format can be employed in animated images creation, the GIF animated images could stop to exist on web pages, even web browsers still have rendering support for them.

In a previous article there are shown the advantages of PNG images in comparison to GIFs, like full alpha channel, support for millions of colors, lossless compression capabilities and more. Mozilla Firefox browser can render PNG animations, which are created in the new APNG (animated PNG) format. This type of format represent an extension to PNG, providing the possibility of animated images creation in PNG. As a consequence, the PNG does not replace only the static GIF images, but the animated ones too, which could mean the end of animated GIFs decade.

In a basic manner, the animated PNG images can be created with the help of on line scripts or by using Firefox add-on APNG Edit. This add-on is practically an editor for APNG images and it works by assembling individual images into a given animation. Also, with the help of scripts (Javascript), you can manage the building of an animation with custom elements or directives.

Another tool to create animated PNG images is APNG Assembler, an online application that allows you to make animations in PNG file format by using your web browser. With the help of an image editor or processing software, you must prepare the static PNG or individual animation frames, then with an archiving utility, all images having identical meta-data must be packed in a single zip archive. The creation of your animation is a step away from the touch of a button.

This line of evolution in quality and advantages of animated PNG images will definitely determine the implementation of APNG specific rendering support in case of many other popular web browsers.

Source : Softpedia